FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
She dreamed of a future in Italy, a path she had begun 14 years ago when she arrived in Rimini with her mother, to join her father. Today she is 20 years old, a normal age for someone who has come from far away, from Bangladesh, and has lived like many of her peers: school, friends, love. But her parents had other plans: first they forced her to travel to Dhaka, under the pretext that her grandmother was ill, and then they pushed her towards a forced marriage and constant attempts to have children against her will.
"It belongs to your husband and you have to get pregnant," the mother would repeat. "You can't go back to Italy without getting pregnant, you just have to do what we say," the father would add. The parents, aged 43 and 55 respectively, were arrested on 1 October and placed under house arrest in the city of Rimini. The Rimini prosecutor's office is accusing them of inciting forced marriage and ill-treatment, as part of an operation called "Saman 2", a clear reference to the tragic case of Saman Abbas, the 18-year-old Pakistani girl killed by her family in Italy for refusing an imposed marriage.
"After I arrived in Dhaka, they took my phone and bank card. They forced me to wear the hijab, to give up my jeans and T-shirts, they threatened me," the young woman said. Ostensibly to see her sick grandmother, she was taken to a house where many "candidates" knocked on the door, all selected by her parents. "They had to bring real CVs and show their authority. But the father immediately chose the son of a friend of his, obedient, likable, and ready to become like the son he never had."
The chosen man was much older, had lived in Malaysia for 20 years and returned to Dhaka for the wedding. The ceremony was organized over five days in December 2024, with golden gifts from the groom and expenses covered by the girl's family. But she did not love this man. "I cried non-stop on the wedding day, but everyone thought they were tears of joy," she said. During the first night, she refused sex and when he reacted, threatened to file a defamation case if they did not accept married life. She took the ritual "purification" bath, he did not, a way of showing the family that the marriage was not "consummated."
Then, attempts began to get her pregnant at all costs. Her parents gave her sedatives and fertility drugs, while she secretly took birth control pills. "My mother had entered into a competition with my aunt to convince me to get married," she said. For her father, it was a matter of honor and dominance: "A marriage to a rich man would show status in the community. Refusal would be shameful."
The father, who frequently traveled between Italy and Bangladesh, spread the "news of success" among the Bengali community in Rimini, distributing sweets to show that he had succeeded in forcibly marrying off his daughter.
Meanwhile, in Dhaka, the girl reported repeated rapes by her husband with the intention of getting her pregnant. "My father had told my mother to tie me to the bed and break my bones if I tried to escape." The door to the room was locked. But between January and February, by feigning compliance, she managed to convince her mother to return her to Italy, justifying herself by saying that she wanted to have a peaceful pregnancy. In fact, she was in contact with the counseling center in Rimini, through a friend.
Immediately after arriving at Bologna's Marconi Airport, the carabinieri were there to pick her up. The girl was taken to a secure location. The mother, temporarily released due to the investigation, notified her father, who began to threaten the girl with threatening audio messages on WhatsApp. "A mother's curse clings to your bones," she repeated. While the father told her: "A black poisonous snake has been born in my womb, you will see it every time you suffer."
Today, the 20-year-old lives in an unknown city under state protection, waiting for justice to take its course. Her parents remain under house arrest, but the shadow of this abuse does not easily disappear. / Corriere Della Sera
Lini një Përgjigje